Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Hartford Financial Services Group
Inc., the Connecticut-based insurer that lost $2.75 billion last
year, rose in New York trading on speculation the government and
regulators will provide financial relief.

Hartford advanced $2.66, or 21 percent, to $15.34 at 10:34
a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Life insurers
including Hartford may be approved for capital injections from
the Treasury as soon as today, Reuters reported on Feb. 7,
citing unidentified people. The firm may be allowed by its state
regulator to reduce reserves to bolster finances, a person
familiar with the matter said on Feb. 6.

Life insurers have slashed dividends and reduced staff
after losses on corporate debt and mortgage-backed securities
depleted capital. Hartford, Genworth Financial Inc. and Lincoln
National Corp. applied for Treasury funds last year and agreed
to buy savings-and-loan companies in order to qualify.

"If approved -- and the terms are not too onerous -- we believe this would be an overall positive," Mark Finkelstein,
an analyst with Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochrane Caronia Waller, said
today in a research note.

Shannon Lapierre, a spokeswoman for the Hartford,
Connecticut-based insurer, declined to comment on potential help
from the government and regulators. Treasury spokeswoman Isaac
Baker and Genworth's Al Orendorff declined to comment.

Hartford was downgraded by Moody's Investors Service last
week after reporting a fourth-quarter loss and missing its own
target for a measure of financial strength called the risk-based
capital ratio. The cut may push Chief Executive Officer Ramani
Ayer to split Hartford's money losing life insurance unit from
its profitable property-casualty business, said Joshua Shanker,
an analyst with Citigroup Inc.